Lankesteriana International Journal on

Orchidology
ISSN: 1409-3871
lankesteriana@ucr.ac.cr
Universidad de Costa Rica
Costa Rica

GIGOT, GUILLAUME
MOLECULAR TOOLS AND DNA BARCODING FOR CONSERVATION
Lankesteriana International Journal on Orchidology, vol. 7, núm. 1-2, marzo, 2007
Universidad de Costa Rica
Cartago, Costa Rica

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LANKESTERIANA 7(1-2): 199. 2007.

MOLECULAR TOOLS AND DNA BARCODING FOR CONSERVATION

GUILLAUME GIGOT
Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, TW9 3DS Richmond, United Kingdom
g.gigot@rbgkew.org.uk

KEY WORDS: Darwin Initiative, biodiversity, conservation

The Darwin Initiative (DI) for the Survival of
Species promotes biodiversity conservation and
sustainable use of resources around the world
(http://www.darwin.gov.uk). The main goal of the
DI is to assist countries rich in biodiversity but
poor in resources with the conservation of biologi-
cal diversity and implementation of the
Biodiversity Convention. Projects funded under the
DI are collaborative, involving either local institu-
tions or communities in the host country in collab-
oration with a British institution. Here we present
four Darwin Initiative projects using molecular
tools for species identification, forensic use and
conservation:
• the project entitled “Conservation and Monitoring
of MesoAmerican orchids” (Ref. 14-001), is based
on a partnership between the Lankester Botanica
Garden in Costa Rica and the Royal Botanic
Gardens Kew in UK.
• the project called “Molecular tools for promoting
biodiversity in rainforest fragments of Borneo” (Ref.
10-025), is the result of a collaboration between the
Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation
University Malaysia Sabah, the Forest Research
Centre Sabah and the Yayasan Sabah and the
University of York, the University of Leeds, the
Natural History Museum in UK.
• for this project entitled “Certification to support
conservation of endangered Mexican desert
cacti”(Ref. 14-059), partners come from two universi-
ties in Mexico - Universidad Autonoma de Querétaro
and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM) – and the University of Reading in UK.
• the project called “Building Genetic Forensic
Capacity to reduce South Africa’s illegal trade” (Ref.
13-018), involves researchers and students from the
University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa and
University of Sheffield in UK.

Guillaume Gigot was first educated at the University of Montpellier (France) where he studied evolution and ecology.
He was then awarded his diploma of engineering in agronomy and environment at “Grande Ecole” in Paris. After
working on several research projects in tropical ecology and population genetics in France, he started at the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2005 as Darwin Initiative Project Officer. He is currently in charge of the coordination and
management of a project regarding orchid biodiversity and DNA barcoding in collaboration with the Lankester
Botanical Garden in Costa Rica.